Pick a Big East coach, any Big East coach, and chances are he has been disgruntled with his team’s conference schedule, which means, of course, that the league did a good job.

Rutgers opened with — Pitt, at UConn and Marquette. Notre Dame got — at Louisville, at Syracuse, UConn, Marquette and at Pitt in succession. Today it is St. John’s chance to grumble.

The Red Storm (12-12 overall, 3-9 Big East), reeling from a three-game losing streak, plays at Marquette. The Golden Eagles return home after playing three straight road games and losing the final two.

This could be a St. Valentine’s Day massacre.

“The key to that game is energy play with Marquette,” said St. John’s coach Norm Roberts. “They play so hard on every single possession, on every single play, we have to match that, exceed that, to compete with them.”

The Red Storm, which is in grave danger of falling below .500 for the first time this season, has not competed well on the road. They haven’t posted a Big East road win since a 52-45 win at Rutgers last Feb. 6.

St. John’s has lost nine straight since then and recently the Red Storm hasn’t been competitive early in games. In Wednesday night’s 71-61 loss at Cincinnati, St. John’s fell behind by 21.

“You have to go and take the win,” Roberts said of playing on the road. “You have to go and take it. You almost have to hope a little that they’re not playing great at home as well, and then you’ve got a chance to win a road game.

“We’ve let teams get off to too many good starts,” he added.

All the factors are in place for the Red Storm to get off to another slow start. They returned home early Thursday morning after the Cincy loss. Yesterday they flew to Milwaukee.

The Golden Eagles (20-4, 9-2) returned home Wednesday morning after a 102-84 thrashing at Villanova. It was their second straight league loss after opening 9-0.